The Light Corridor is a first-person puzzle game available for Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

, Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

, Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

, Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

, DOS

DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

, MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 and ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

. It was released in 1990 by Infogrames

Infogrames

Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...

.

Plot

The player must capture the light rays in order to accomplish the ultimate challenge: the illumination of the stars in a newborn universe.

Gameplay

The game can be played by one or two players. Both gameplay modes are the same, with the two player mode allowing the players to take turns.

The player uses a paddle to navigate a metal sphere down a long corridor. The player releases the ball (which is stuck to the paddle at the beginning of the game) and it will fly down the corridor until it hits a wall or similar obstacle and bounces back towards the player. The player uses the time the ball spends travelling to walk down the corridor. The colour of the walls changes as the player moves further down the tunnel. When the ball returns, the player must deflect it and send it back down the corridor. The object of the game is to reach the end of the corridor without allowing the ball to avoid the paddle and hit the player. If this happens, the player will lose a life. The game will continue from where the player stopped, and the ball will once again be attached to the paddle.

Obstacles such as moving elevator-style doors make navigating corridors difficult and success relies on the player’s quick reactions. Collectable power-ups

Power-up

In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

 make progress easier. The colour of the corridor changes after every four levels, and there are 50 levels in total.

There is a level construction kit included, meaning the player can create their own levels and save them for future use.

Reception

The game was well received at its release. Sinclair User

Sinclair User

Sinclair User, often abbreviated SU, was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum...

 gave it a 93% overall score, Crash

CRASH (magazine)

Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.-Development:...

 called it "simple but wildly addictive" and Your Sinclair

Your Sinclair

Your Sinclair or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum.-History:...

said it was frustratingly difficult but it was worth going back for more.